One-Hundred and Fifty

by Lumendea

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who and gain nothing from the creation of this story

AN: Cleaned up old drabble. This was written before series four, but I've had requests to repost it. Remember that if you enjoy my stuff to look up my original works The Iron Soul series by J.M. Briggs.

…..

The Doctor played with the controls of the TARDIS for exactly one-hundred and fifty seconds before he dashed down the hallways after Rose Tyler. She had made it to her old bedroom and was looking into it with a sad smile.

"Rose?"

"It's so young looking," she chuckled with a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Hard to remember being that young."

"You can pick another room," he told her gently.

Rose nodded, turned and opened another door across the hallway. She walked into the plain bedroom and dropped her bag on the bed with a white duvet. The Doctor quietly followed her in and watched as she pulled a few changes of clothes out of the rucksack, smoothed them out and put them away in a set of drawers. She set the photo album on the vanity and ran her hand over it lovingly.

"So..." the Doctor trailed off for a moment, "Any requests besides running?"

"Nope," Rose said to him as she kept moving around the room, adding small touches of herself to it. "I've just been very very bored lately. Don't get me wrong UNIT was great, but it got old so I took to traveling around."

"I know what you mean," the Doctor told her quickly with a grin, "Can't stay in one place for long. Bet the human me never did."

He was afraid he had made a mistake in mentioning the other him until Rose laughed. She really laughed a happy and joyful laugh that made the Doctor feel much better about the situation. His twin hearts pounded with relief or excitement or something else, it was a mess that he couldn't even begin to sort out.

"Oh he was hopeless at it for years! The first few years were the hardest as he was adjusting. I was constantly afraid that he was in a ditch somewhere, I even talked him into wearing a tracker to ease the fear." She shook her head at her own foolishness, "Then one day he showed up a puppy and was just so pleased with it. He did that a lot, something completely human and spontaneous. He eased up a little once Donna was born."

"Donna?"

Rose turned to the Doctor with a soft frown and walked over to take his hand. She intertwined their fingers with an ease that made it seem like only moments since they'd held hands instead of seventy years. The very reminder of how much time had passed sent a chill up his spine.

"Yeah, he told me what you'd have to do to save her life. When we had a girl, she had this gorgeous head of ginger hair so we named her Donna." Rose shook her head, "She was a lot like her namesake and fiercely protective of her little brother Adric."

"He told you about that too?"

Rose nodded and squeezed his hand, not letting it go. "We were married for sixty- four years Doctor," Rose reminded him gently. "He told me everything over that span of time. In the end we had no regrets and no secrets."

"And he made a way back here for you?"

"Yeah," Rose nodded, "Wanted me to carry on my fantastic life."

"I'm sorry it didn't work out the way I'd planed for you."

"It's been seventy years for me Doctor since he died," Rose said completely calmly without any of the anger or resentment he might have expected. "I was angry at first, that's why I delayed using the device for two years, but in the end I realized one very important thing about the two of you."

"What was that?" the Doctor asked in real curiosity.

Rose grinned, her tongue slipping out over her teeth before she said, "You're both hopeful romantics."

"Hopeful romantics?"

"Yeah, hopeful that you'll see the person you love happy no matter what it costs you."

The Doctor swallowed as she let go of his hand and turned back to her unpacking. She tossed the empty bag into the corner and moved to the doorway. The Doctor followed her in silence again as she returned to her old room and gather up a few curios. She dismissed most of her old clothes, but snatched up the framed photographs.

"You were happy right?" The Doctor asked suddenly before he could lose his nerve. "With him I mean?"

"Yeah I was. We had two wonderful children who were a little bit cleverer than everyone else and who both grew up to be happy themselves. We had good careers protecting Earth and then we had a fun retirement of dashing about planet Earth. I was- we were very happy."

"Good," the Doctor nodded firmly before heading out the door. "How about Barcelona?"

"Planet or the city?" Rose asked with a grin.

"Whichever you like Rose."

"Planet then Doctor, I've seen the city. Well I've seen an alternative version of the city."

"Barcelona it is Rose."

Rose looked at the empty doorway for one-hundred and fifty seconds before she grinned and dashed toward the console room. Time to start something new. She wasn't sure what yet, but they had time.